Thailand’s under-performing economy needs to be given a major boost, to increase its growth rate and pull the country out of the middle-income trap, while improving the livelihoods of people at all levels, according to Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.

 

In his keynote speech, given at an event hosted by the Economic Reporters Association, the prime minister pointed out that Thailand’s annual growth rate for the past ten years averaged 1.8%, the lowest in this region, while household debt rose from 76% to 90% of GDP, placing Thailand among the world’s top ten countries for household debt.

 

He cited the case of about 30,000 Thais working in Israel, saying that most of them don’t want to be repatriated, despite the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, because of the attractive pay and the fact that some Israeli employers have offered to double their wages.

 

Full story: Thai PBS 2023-10-25

 

- Cigna offers a range of visa-compliant plans that meet the minimum requirement of medical treatment, including COVID-19, up to THB 3m. For more information on all expat health insurance plans click here.

 

Get our Daily Newsletter - Click HERE to subscribe

No argument from me about this great vision about having  a great boost to the economy.

My argument is how will this great boost be achieved? ie what is the strategy behind this marvellous and brilliant, innovative and sustainable vision? How will the success of the strategy be measured? How will the huge boost in profits from the growth be distributed? equally or will the 1% trouser 99% of the profits and pay no taxes on them either? 

Visions are as useful as a chocolate teapot....how you are going to implement the strategies behind the vision to make sure it is achieved that counts. Sadly, Srethha's a 'big vision' guy and there is no strategy behind they vision....none, he simply doesn't have the skills or the brain power. He thinks in 'promotions' like in some mom and pop market stall. buy 2 get one free. And sadly that is about as sophisticated as his thinking gets, and he wants to borrow money to throw at these promotions to claim he has done something.

Resigning his government and installing the winning party in place—you know, that democracy thing—will give a nice boost to the economy, improve Thailand’s standing overseas (read: everyone apart from China, Russia and those other dodgy nations) and make the people happy. 

Wait! Didn't they just announce a 5%-growth rate? How is this "under-performing"?

And let me guess, you're going to wave your magic economic wand, and everyone gets 10,000 Baht. Hey Presto - a thriving economic powerhouse.

Haha, prime stomping grounds for the Chinese B&R project.  

 

Really amazing how any politician in the world will speak the words but rarely put in common sense and acts to concretize.

 

Boosting economy at some point obviously needs foreign capital. Attracting foreigners to invest whether in a house, condo or a large scale venture.....trust is needed.

 

To gain trust,  one needs to ban corruption from the lowest to the highest level. Give foreigners more basic rights like the right to own their plot of land for one house.

 

Acquiring trust in one thing. To maintain the trust is another.  Life must be made easier for the quality foreigners who bring in money in Thailand starting from the botton level in their purchase of real estate, to other higher investment ventures.

 

Any owner of property on freehold or leasehold should straight away get a document enabling hassle free obtention of a yellow book, a 10 year visa and a driving licence with none of the actual bureaucratic hassles 😅

 

Just look at the absurd rules the banks invent or the clerk on duty makes up to hush away foreigners who want to bring in money and open a bank account.

 

Let's dream on ,,,, 😅

ive got a  great idea, give everyone 100000000000000000 baht to spend free

Give me a 90 day free entry stamp with an option to extend another 90 days and I will give you a boost.

 

Thailand keeps droning on and on and on, about how they want wealthy tourists. Again, what sacrifices are you willing to make? Rich tourists like to spend money when they travel. And they cannot do that here, as they do not like getting taken for a ride. Most wealthy people are smart with their money. Thailand could be making a fortune on a 25% luxury tax, instead of the 100% of more, which discourages most people from buying. How many people do you see in the luxury stores here? They are almost always completely empty. Inane. Beyond inane.

 

Is Thailand making any effort, on any level to address the issues that were present, pre-Covid? Traffic and public safety, air quality, road congestion, luxury taxes, wine taxes, jet ski scams?

 

I could go on all day. My guess is nothing is being done to address anything, and every issue they currently face is being blamed on Covid. Now, they have a real scapegoat, and looking within for the source of any of the problems is less likely than ever.

 

Prices are up, inflation continues its march, and income for many Thais who are not successful entrepreneurs, or government workers, is down. Tourism will not recover anytime soon. The quality of tourists continues to drop, the average spend is down, and occupancy rates are low. In addition, exports are down, and we have not even seen a real recession hit yet overseas. Nor has the market correction come yet. So, there is still alot of headwind that Thailand faces.

 

The fact is Thailand could be doing a dozen different things to make itself more attractive to both tourism and investment. But, all the things it could do, to make itself a better version of its current self, would require sacrifice and vision. Not something this army led govt. nor Sretta and the PT seem capable of. Major tax breaks, drastic lowering of luxury and wine taxes, allowing ownership of land and homes by foreigners, relaxation of inane visa laws, ridding the administration of xenophobic ministers, beginning a program of hiring based on merit, improving traffic safety, paying attention to the air and the environment. The list goes on and on and on. Will any of this happen? One can hope. But, it is unlikely as this administration is likely to be another in a continuing chain of backward thinking, non progressives.

 

 

 

There's one thing for certain... keep doing the same thing over and over hoping for different results is the definition of insanity... refer democrap voters in USA.

15 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Thailand keeps droning on and on and on, about how they want wealthy tourists. Again, what sacrifices are you willing to make? Rich tourists like to spend money when they travel. And they cannot do that here, as they do not like getting taken for a ride.

And yet the actions are all aimed to promote mass cheap tourism, the extended permission of stay for Russians and Visa Exempt for Chinese, and I expect India will get the same soon. These group don't really help with attracting the wealthy ones. Will Phuket soon be the Benidorm of Thailand? Is that perhaps what they want in reality. 

12 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Thailand’s under-performing economy needs to be given a major boost, to increase its growth rate and pull the country out of the middle-income trap, while improving the livelihoods of people at all levels, according to Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin

So get to work Srettha, and I don't mean begging every country in the world to invest in Thailand.

How about investing in your own entrepreneurs and have something home grown.

maybe start by taking the boot off the people's throats. 

12 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

while household debt rose from 76% to 90% of GDP

Damnit, let's borrow some more! We've got 10 grand coming from the govt! I'll get that new Honda Click whatever it takes! If Daeng next door can get one, so can I!!! 🤪

7 minutes ago, stoner said:

maybe start by taking the boot off the people's throats. 

.....and let them breathe?........................Nah! 🤔

It starts with broken windows. 

The education system here needs a major overhaul and upgrade.  

The transportation system needs a major upgrade.

The police services need major training upgrades.

Just thinking about handing out money to people and continually getting low life tourists is not the answer.

1 hour ago, Skipalongcassidy said:

There's one thing for certain... keep doing the same thing over and over hoping for different results is the definition of insanity... refer democrap voters in USA.

Since you used this to take a silly shot at the people who believe in democracy and capitalism, I will remind you of that pesky little thing called Reality.

 

Perhaps Thailand should study the success the Democrats have brought to the US, since both the economy and stock market perform better under Democrats. There has not been a single Republican administration ever that has not presided over the start of a Recession...and that despite the massive deficits Republicans tend to run up.

 

Thailand's 'growth' over the last ten years is like typical Republican fantasy: low growth only achieved by massive debt. In other words, zero organic growth, only debt fueled growth.

 

trump is the latest example: the worst GDP change of any POTUS since Herbert Hoover and the only POTUS since Hoover to leave office with fewer Americans employed than when he took office (after Obama saved the us and world from the subprime disaster). And how did trump achieve that below mediocre record? He ran up a new $7,800,000,000,000 debt, or $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the US. <----Is what caused the inflation Biden and the Fed are now getting under control.

 

Repubs will try to argue "Yes, but Covid". Well, the bloated orange traitor took office in Jan 2017. Covid first hit the US noticeably in March 2020, and the first funding allocated to address it was not until April 2020, 3 years and 3 months into the 4 year trump American Carnage.

 

Just like in his business---6 bankruptcies, inheritance of over $500 million from Dad, plus Dad co-signed every trump loan until the day Dad died---trump is an economic nightmare.

 

Indeed, the Thai PM should study both the successful Democrats and the failure that is trump. Lessons to be learned from both.

 

A picture tells a story: from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, a division of the US DeptCommerce

 

6 minutes ago, Walker88 said:

Since you used this to take a silly shot at the people who believe in democracy and capitalism, I will remind you of that pesky little thing called Reality.

 

Perhaps Thailand should study the success the Democrats have brought to the US, since both the economy and stock market perform better under Democrats. There has not been a single Republican administration ever that has not presided over the start of a Recession...and that despite the massive deficits Republicans tend to run up.

 

Thailand's 'growth' over the last ten years is like typical Republican fantasy: low growth only achieved by massive debt. In other words, zero organic growth, only debt fueled growth.

 

trump is the latest example: the worst GDP change of any POTUS since Herbert Hoover and the only POTUS since Hoover to leave office with fewer Americans employed than when he took office (after Obama saved the us and world from the subprime disaster). And how did trump achieve that below mediocre record? He ran up a new $7,800,000,000,000 debt, or $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the US. <----Is what caused the inflation Biden and the Fed are now getting under control.

 

Repubs will try to argue "Yes, but Covid". Well, the bloated orange traitor took office in Jan 2017. Covid first hit the US noticeably in March 2020, and the first funding allocated to address it was not until April 2020, 3 years and 3 months into the 4 year trump American Carnage.

 

Just like in his business---6 bankruptcies, inheritance of over $500 million from Dad, plus Dad co-signed every trump loan until the day Dad died---trump is an economic nightmare.

 

Indeed, the Thai PM should study both the successful Democrats and the failure that is trump. Lessons to be learned from both.

 

A picture tells a story: from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, a division of the US DeptCommerce

 

 

Gotcha...

1 hour ago, Skipalongcassidy said:

There's one thing for certain... keep doing the same thing over and over hoping for different results is the definition of insanity... refer democrap voters in USA.

Since you used this to take a silly shot at the people who believe in democracy and capitalism, I will remind you of that pesky little thing called Reality.

 

Perhaps Thailand should study the success the Democrats have brought to the US, since both the economy and stock market perform better under Democrats. There has not been a single Republican administration ever that has not presided over the start of a Recession...and that despite the massive deficits Republicans tend to run up.

 

Thailand's 'growth' over the last ten years is like typical Republican fantasy: low growth only achieved by massive debt. In other words, zero organic growth, only debt fueled growth.

 

trump is the latest example: the worst GDP change of any POTUS since Herbert Hoover and the only POTUS since Hoover to leave office with fewer Americans employed than when he took office (after Obama saved the us and world from the subprime disaster). And how did trump achieve that below mediocre record? He ran up a new $7,800,000,000,000 debt, or $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the US. <----Is what caused the inflation Biden and the Fed are now getting under control.

 

Repubs will try to argue "Yes, but Covid". Well, the bloated orange traitor took office in Jan 2017. Covid first hit the US noticeably in March 2020, and the first funding allocated to address it was not until April 2020, 3 years and 3 months into the 4 year trump American Carnage.

 

Just like in his business---6 bankruptcies, inheritance of over $500 million from Dad, plus Dad co-signed every trump loan until the day Dad died---trump is an economic nightmare.

 

Indeed, the Thai PM should study both the successful Democrats and the failure that is trump. Lessons to be learned from both.

 

A picture tells a story: from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, a division of the US DeptCommerce

 

 

Edited October 26, 20232 yr by Walker88

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

He cited the case of about 30,000 Thais working in Israel, saying that most of them don’t want to be repatriated, despite the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, because of the attractive pay and the fact that some Israeli employers have offered to double their wages.

yeah, get double wages for working in a war zone.

or come back home to a sluggish GDP.

tough choice for sure. 

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

He cited the case of about 30,000 Thais working in Israel, saying that most of them don’t want to be repatriated, despite the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, because of the attractive pay and the fact that some Israeli employers have offered to double their wages.

Ah, so this is why he wants the overseas tax to make working on a thai construction sites mote appealable 

28 minutes ago, Skipalongcassidy said:

Gotcha...

I never miss an opportunity to educate the uninformed, even if they're trolling, because despite their claims of trolling, I know they still live in a fantasy world made up by their messiah.

 

I consider it a public service, or almost a Kipling-esque sort of burden.

Edited October 26, 20232 yr by Walker88

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Thailand’s under-performing economy needs to be given a major boost, to increase its growth rate and pull the country out of the middle-income trap, while improving the livelihoods of people at all levels

 

Thailand , given it's relative neutrality in international politics , would be a good place to manufacture high tech chips like Taiwan . just need to create the necessary infrastructure .

Less likely to be sanctioned .

 

40 minutes ago, Walker88 said:

Since you used this to take a silly shot at the people who believe in democracy and capitalism, I will remind you of that pesky little thing called Reality.

 

Perhaps Thailand should study the success the Democrats have brought to the US, since both the economy and stock market perform better under Democrats. There has not been a single Republican administration ever that has not presided over the start of a Recession...and that despite the massive deficits Republicans tend to run up.

 

Thailand's 'growth' over the last ten years is like typical Republican fantasy: low growth only achieved by massive debt. In other words, zero organic growth, only debt fueled growth.

 

trump is the latest example: the worst GDP change of any POTUS since Herbert Hoover and the only POTUS since Hoover to leave office with fewer Americans employed than when he took office (after Obama saved the us and world from the subprime disaster). And how did trump achieve that below mediocre record? He ran up a new $7,800,000,000,000 debt, or $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the US. <----Is what caused the inflation Biden and the Fed are now getting under control.

 

Repubs will try to argue "Yes, but Covid". Well, the bloated orange traitor took office in Jan 2017. Covid first hit the US noticeably in March 2020, and the first funding allocated to address it was not until April 2020, 3 years and 3 months into the 4 year trump American Carnage.

 

Just like in his business---6 bankruptcies, inheritance of over $500 million from Dad, plus Dad co-signed every trump loan until the day Dad died---trump is an economic nightmare.

 

Indeed, the Thai PM should study both the successful Democrats and the failure that is trump. Lessons to be learned from both.

 

A picture tells a story: from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, a division of the US DeptCommerce

 

 

Good info. You are likely right. Just look at what Clinton achieved with the economy, and the utter wreckage Bush Jr. later brought on. 

 

Trump was a disaster. He was likely the 44th worst president ever. Where will Sretta rank? Only time with tell. He is very unimpressive so far. Despite the $800,000,000 smile. Perhaps condo sales do not translate to running a country? 

 

After 9 dismal years under Cha Cha, they really needed a dynamic leader, I do not think they have one. 

Not much meat on the bones from this speech, at least not much in the full article.

 

The usual clap-trap: control inflation with subsidies, more trade agreements, Land Bridge.

 

He's a talker, not a doer. Classic Thai, he just assumes he can bring economic growth into existence if he talks about it enough.

 

Clueless, thank goodness he doesn't have any real power.

 

 

58 minutes ago, Walker88 said:

 

Indeed, the Thai PM should study both the successful Democrats and the failure that is trump. Lessons to be learned from both.

 

 

 

 

Maybe GDP under Trump was low because Trump unlike Johnson, bush , Obama and now Biden did  not give away billions for bogus wars that benefit the military industrial complex. And back on topic : The bank of Thailand should stop spending foreign currency reserves to artificially prop up the baht. Let the baht go to about 40/$ and the economy (exports and tourism will increase. They should forget about attracting wrealthy tourists and go for middle class. These folks who stay in the 3 star hotels are not going to return when they have to put up with these local jerks on motorbikes on the sidewalks 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 26, 20232 yr by morrobay

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Thailand keeps droning on and on and on, about how they want wealthy tourists. Again, what sacrifices are you willing to make? Rich tourists like to spend money when they travel. And they cannot do that here, as they do not like getting taken for a ride. Most wealthy people are smart with their money. Thailand could be making a fortune on a 25% luxury tax, instead of the 100% of more, which discourages most people from buying. How many people do you see in the luxury stores here? They are almost always completely empty. Inane. Beyond inane.

 

Is Thailand making any effort, on any level to address the issues that were present, pre-Covid? Traffic and public safety, air quality, road congestion, luxury taxes, wine taxes, jet ski scams?

 

I could go on all day. My guess is nothing is being done to address anything, and every issue they currently face is being blamed on Covid. Now, they have a real scapegoat, and looking within for the source of any of the problems is less likely than ever.

 

Prices are up, inflation continues its march, and income for many Thais who are not successful entrepreneurs, or government workers, is down. Tourism will not recover anytime soon. The quality of tourists continues to drop, the average spend is down, and occupancy rates are low. In addition, exports are down, and we have not even seen a real recession hit yet overseas. Nor has the market correction come yet. So, there is still alot of headwind that Thailand faces.

 

The fact is Thailand could be doing a dozen different things to make itself more attractive to both tourism and investment. But, all the things it could do, to make itself a better version of its current self, would require sacrifice and vision. Not something this army led govt. nor Sretta and the PT seem capable of. Major tax breaks, drastic lowering of luxury and wine taxes, allowing ownership of land and homes by foreigners, relaxation of inane visa laws, ridding the administration of xenophobic ministers, beginning a program of hiring based on merit, improving traffic safety, paying attention to the air and the environment. The list goes on and on and on. Will any of this happen? One can hope. But, it is unlikely as this administration is likely to be another in a continuing chain of backward thinking, non progressives.

 

 

 

Agree with much except ownership of land.  If land can be bought by foreigners the many poor Thais will sell their land & Thailand will be owned by nonThais.  Example, most of Scotland is not owned by Scottish people.

There may be economic advantages to allowing sale of land to foreignees but pros & cons must be analysed to see whether it benefits the majority of Thais.

At last we have an admission that the Country is virtually on its A@@e

And what do we see ?

Money being poured into useless War Toys and Gimmick Schemes promised by a Government, that has no idea on how to implement those schemes, or how pay the massive bills for all the promised giveaways

Its not just the 10K Digital Wallet scheme that has been promised at an estimated 580 Billion Baht cost

There are assistance packages promised for Teachers, Police and Civil Servants to help them with their Personal Debts

Land giveaways to Millions of Farmers, as well as Debt assistance

Etc Etc Etc The list just goes on, and all that Lurch can say is " The Economy needs a major Boost "

This Guy Srettha is very quickly becoming somewhat of a fool, and hes going to be seen as such across the Globe

 

 

Gee all that Romancing with Putin and Xi didn’t go that Well huh